"Apple has now released Mac OS X 10.6.8, the eighth maintenance update for Snow Leopard, via Software Update. The update offers a number of fixes implemented since the release of Mac OS X 10.6.7 in late March."

IMHO the last PPC Mac shipped around 6 years ago - personally I think that is pretty damn good in my books; at some point one has to throw in the towel and say, "yeap, I've gotten good mileage out of the machine".

Personally I bought an iMac G5 right at the end of the PPC iMac's life. I don't feel like I got good mileage from the machine; actually it feels terrible. Almost overnight the platform became neglected. Leopard was frustratingly slow on it, many app developers shunned it quickly, and apps tended to depend on the CPU performance of Intel so even apps that "ran" didn't work well.

I bought a PC six months earlier, and I'm still using it. I even upgraded it to Win7, and it's working fine. The G5 is gathering dust.

I know, I shouldn't expect so much from Apple. But, particularly since the machine was expensive (Apple tax + integrated monitor etc made it the most expensive computer I've ever bought), it definitely left a sour taste and makes me think twice before getting Apple gear again.

Mate, I've said this numerous times - you're comparing apples to oranges; you're comparing one side of the industry with a constant ISA/architecture to Apple that has moved from PowerPC to Intel. If Apple were using Intel all this time but artificially blocked off all machines from 5 years ago from using Mac OS X then your point would stand but that simply isn't the situation as it stands today.

There are less and less PowerPC computers out there and to be completely honest if you've gotten 5-6 years out of a computer I think you're doing pretty damn good in my books. I would be saying this even if I owned a PC, I've gone from an eMac to an iMac/iBook to a MacBook to a MacBook Pro/iMac - I find it funny that people scream and wail with pain when it comes to computer upgrades but don't batter and eye lid when it comes to upgrading their car, television or some other piece of equipment of equal or greater value within the same 5-6 year time frame.

Mate, I've said this numerous times - you're comparing apples to oranges; you're comparing one side of the industry with a constant ISA/architecture to Apple that has moved from PowerPC to Intel.

That's true, although note that other vendors are much more reluctant to do things like this. Apple have changed CPUs a couple times (68k->ppc->intel), OSes a couple times (os9->osx->ios), and provided relatively poor compatibility experiences along the way. Apple users should not expect that today's arch will be tomorrow's arch, although PC users take that for granted.

...There are less and less PowerPC computers out there and to be completely honest if you've gotten 5-6 years out of a computer I think you're doing pretty damn good in my books.

My point is that I got around 2, not 5-6. The machine hasn't been in serious use for a long time.

...people scream and wail with pain when it comes to computer upgrades but don't batter and eye lid when it comes to upgrading their car, television or some other piece of equipment of equal or greater value within the same 5-6 year time frame.

I'd say the reverse. I've never upgraded any of those things in a 5-6 year timeframe. Computer upgrades have always been rapid, often artificially rapid. I'm shocked that many businesses replace PCs every 3-4 years even though the functionality/value that they get barely changes at each cycle. How often do they replace desks?

I find it funny that people scream and wail with pain when it comes to computer upgrades but don't batter and eye lid when it comes to upgrading their car, television or some other piece of equipment of equal or greater value within the same 5-6 year time frame.

I think it has to do with the fact that computers are multi-purpose machines which operate on data.

If I replaced my bike with a new one in the same category and price range, I'd just spend an afternoon setting some things up and it's good to go. The controls and the capabilities of the machine don't change much. Maybe there's one more or one less gear on the back, but this you get used to in a week.

For computers, it's a different story. Computers and their OSs are shipped in a state where they're not good at anything useful. You need to clean up the mess that the manufacturer has left, install your own software, hope that it works (and, in case of PPC software on x86, it probably won't), move your data, discover that your data is incompatible with the newer versions of the software you're using, which you have been forced to buy because your old ones don't work with your new computers... And once everything is done, you get a machine that works in a significantly different way and have to relearn lots of your everyday habits from the ground up.

Getting a new computer is not like setting up a bike or car and getting used to it. There's a whole lot of pain and mess involved. That's why people are not as much willing to do it, I think.